I was blessed to be at the opening ceremony of the Special Olympics in Dublin, Ireland in 2003, and got to be in the same stadium – along with 80,000 other people – as two of my most beloved heroes, Nelson Mandela and Muhammad Ali, which was too wonderful for words.

I honestly can’t even describe my emotions when Ali appeared, it was like laying eyes on God, and as for Nelson Mandela’s appearance …. just beyond magical.

This is them meeting up in Dublin, one of the VERY great images:

Any way, the climax of the ceremony was hometown boys U2 doing their thing, and they played my all-time favorite song, ‘One’ (see the video above). So, by then, I was in need of oxygen, it was too perfect an evening.

(Although the real highlight was probably the families and friends of the Special Olympians booing the Irish Prime Minister when he strutted in to the stadium, expecting a hero’s welcome – despite having cut services for those with special needs. They made their voices heard, it was a joy).

Now? I reckon Bono is a hypocritical, tax-dodging, insufferable dick, whose ego is comically large ….. but I’ll still always love him for ‘One’.

The best ever version of the song? Probably this, with the incomparable Mary J Blige:

PBO was great. He was encouraging young people to dream big. I also loved loved the fact that Carl Sagan reached out to Dr. Tyson to mentor him. He also gave a beautiful testimony for Dr. Tyson. “a future astronomer” That was so awesome.

Uh oh … my friend just sent a less-than-totally favorable critique of Neil’s show … as compared to the original with Carl Sagan, so she’s a bit biased having watched that again first … but she’s giving it a big chance next episode, because she knows how important this is for students to see, etc., not to mention she loves both of ’em.

Given the very important theme of what Chips has posted, I just could not depart without posting:

“Putin refused to congratulate the Ukrainian who won a gold medal against a Russian at the Sochi Paralympic Games.

Putin wanted to congratulate the Russian sportsman, but the race was won by Vitaliy Lukyanenko.

One of the most interesting moment of the first competition day at the Sochi Paralympics happened after the men’s 7,5 kilometre race in biathlon amongst athletes with vision impairment.

This episode was not filmed by any cameras, reports TSN.

A few moments after the end of the race, President of Russia Vladimir Putin ascended to the track with the goal to personally congratulate and shake the hand of the Russian sportsman Nikolai Polunin who had been predicted to win gold in the race. But our Vitaliy Lukyanenko beat the Russian by 11 seconds. Therefore Putin’s plans suddenly changed. The Russian President did not want to congratulate Vitaliy Lukyanenko.

What an absolute scumbag Putin is to fail to congratulate the Ukrainian winner. There are no words low enough to describe this slime of a man so adored by the right wing. I hope everyone in the world saw this and now understands what Putin is– a heartless, soulless, megalomaniac.

“It’s a corker of a gaffe by anyone’s standards. Making the most powerful man in the world sound more like the fizzy vitamin supplement Berocca is one thing. Demoting him to leader of the UK is quite another.”

House Republicans have a bold new strategy to attack Obamacare, which involves huge pay cuts for physicians unless Democrats agree to delay the law’s individual mandate to buy insurance.

GOP leaders intend to vote on legislation this week, aides say, to delay the individual mandate in order to fund a “doc fix” that avoids a 24 percent pay cut to physicians under Medicare — which will automatically take effect on April 1 unless Congress acts. Inaction would disrupt the health care system, in part by causing many doctors to stop accepting Medicare patients.

We can not sit on our behinds 2014 and allow these sick ass Tea Republicans to keep control of the House, and we can’t let them get control of the Senate. I am not concern about 2016 and Hillary, not one bit. 2014.